PSTricks will not compile

Question

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[paperheight=9in,paperwidth=13.24in,margin=0in]{geometry}
\usepackage{pstricks}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\begin{document}
\thispagestyle{empty}
\psset{unit=1in}
\begin{pspicture}(13.24in,9in)
\psframe[fillstyle=solid,fillcolor=Maroon](0,0)(13.24,9)

\end{pspicture}

\end{document}

I am following a tutorial outlined here: How can I design a book cover?

I am following the Robbers book.

Everything seems fine until I paste the \psframe[fillstyle=solid,fillcolor=Maroon](0,0)(13.24,9)

What could be the problem?

Answer 1

It seems you are using pdflatex to compile. Somehow, pstricks is not friendly with pdflatex. To compile documents that use pstricks, you should use either xelatex or latex->dvips->ps2pdf. To do so, you should run

xelatex yourtexfile.tex

from the command prompt. If you have an editor (which one you are using?), it will certianly have a button for this.

Or you may use the same pdflatex by adding pdf option to pstricks

\usepackage[svgnames,pdf]{pstricks}

But for this you should have the latest version of pstricks. The following code works for me with pdflatex (though I get 2 badboxes).

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[paperheight=9in,paperwidth=13.24in,margin=0in]{geometry}
\usepackage[svgnames,pdf]{pstricks}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\begin{document}
\thispagestyle{empty}
\psset{unit=1in}
\noindent
\begin{pspicture}(13.24in,9in)
\psframe[fillstyle=solid,fillcolor=Maroon](0,0)(13.24,9)
\end{pspicture}
\end{document}

If you need more help to know how to use xelatex or latex->dvips->ps2pdf routes, please let us know with some details like which editor and tex distribution you are using.

Edit:

You can make xelatex work with texmaker. First install a latest version of texmaker (make it a fresh install). Then pull the dropdown menu (by clicking the arrow tip next to pdflatex as in picture). Scroll down to get xelatex ans select it. Now you should get the button saying xelatex instead of pdflatex.

Don't forget to remove pdf option from pstricks while using xelatex.

Answer 2

use

\usepackage[dvipsnames]{pstricks}


to activate the color names. And don't forget the \noindent

[...]
\psset{unit=1in}\noindent

\begin{pspicture}(13.24,9)
    
[...]

Answer 3

Maroon is not a predefined color, you need to load the xcolor package with the dvipsnames option. Adding the following line underneath the \usepackage[...]{geometry} should make it work: \usepackage[dvipsnames]{xcolor}.

This sample works for me:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[paperheight=9in,paperwidth=13.24in,margin=0in]{geometry}
\usepackage[dvipsnames]{xcolor}
\usepackage{pstricks}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\begin{document}
\thispagestyle{empty}
\psset{unit=1in}
\begin{pspicture}(13.24in,9in)
\psframe[fillstyle=solid,fillcolor=Maroon](0,0)(13.24,9)
\end{pspicture}

\end{document}